The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Argyranthemum plant botanically known as Argyranthemum frutescens and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Bonmadmerlo’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Yellow Rock, New South Wales, Australia during August 2004. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Argyranthemum cultivars that are freely flowering with unique flower coloration and a freely branching, compact, and upright growth habit.
The new Argyranthemum cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is the proprietary Argyranthemum frutescens breeding selection designated 04-133, not patented, characterized by its anemone type dark maroon red-colored flowers, medium green-colored foliage, and upright mounded and opened in center growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is the proprietary Argyranthemum frutescens breeding selection designated 04-121, not patented, characterized by its anemone type medium pink-colored flowers, medium green-colored foliage, and upright growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during April 2005 in a controlled environment at Yellow Rock, New South Wales, Australia.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since April 2005 Yellow Rock, New South Wales, Australia and West Chicago, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.